Robert Steele: #OWS Non-Violence versus Violence

Occupy Wall Street is at a delicate point both in the USA and overseas. Despite its clear commitment to non-violence, police violence in the USA–and provocateur violence in Europe–are eroding the moral legitimacy of the Occupy Wall Street.

1) Occupy Wall Street needs to maintain discipline, and both domestically and overseas, when provocateurs begin violence, they must be shut down, shunned, or fled from. The anarchists causing so much damage in Europe must be repudiated instantly and completely, even if this means fleeing the area to regroup elsewhere.

2) Gandhi and Martin Luther King both agreed that non-violence was preferable to violence, but violence is preferable to passive acceptance of great crimes against humanity such as we have witnessed within the Empire for the past fifty years.

3) It is my personal judgment that violence is NOT necessary and could be fatal for the OWS Movement. Because of the Internet, there are so many alternatives to violence–flash mobs being one of them–that I am certain that violence of any sort on the part of OWS adherents is self-defeating.

4) With this in mind, I salute US Day of Rage and their focus on Electoral Reform. This is the reason I have devoted myself to spreading the gospel of Electoral Reform as the singular demand for #OWS around the world beginning in the USA. A General Strike may well be required to force a very corrupt entrenched two-party tyranny to fold (as Ronald Reagan pointed out, less turnover than the Soviet politburo), but in my view Electoral Reform and a General Strike are the two sides of a non-violent revolution that restores integrity to the Republic and shows the way for all other countries (including those that wish to eliminate artificially imposed borders from the colonial era).

Below are some headlines focusing on both non-violence as the avowed method, and violence as the undesired result today, caused by infiltrators to the group (e.g. anarchists, undercover police) not by the group itself. Emphasis is added. The media is exaggerating the violence and failing to properly investigate the actual sources of the violence. OWS is going to have to do this for them, and denounce, in detail and with audio-visual precision, those who do violence to OWS, alongside OWS, or in the name of OWS. But first, here is what I said on the air eight hours before the media figured out it was Anarchists (and probably also undercover police) doing the violence: Robert Steele (Video): Two-Party Tyranny, Obama Will NOT Co-Ops OWS, Violence by Provocateurs Not OWS

Within Twitter, #OWS is the new tag displacing #OccupyWallStreet, and #nonviolence is the method tag.

Nothing will derail America’s version of what is a global struggle faster than elements within these protests turning to violence. Whether it’s actual protestors, infiltrators, or provocateurs, it doesn’t matter. Once those images of violence get snatched up by the corporate media and amplified by the 24 hour news cycle, those who sympathize but are not participating will never lend their support, and the movement will fizzle.

Not only is non-violence essential–an absolute in terms of forward progress–but so also is an action plan to achieve electoral reform. The non-violent protests set the stage, electoral reform is the entire show.

With global and statewide news agencies reporting incidents of ‘violence’ breaking out in many of the worldwide protests taking place today, it would be best if OWS instituted a plan in which to deal with such inevitable problems by informing the peaceful protesters on how to deal with such a threat.

Something else this movement is doing right: You have committed yourselves to non-violence. You have refused to give the media the images of broken windows and street fights it craves so desperately. And that tremendous discipline has meant that, again and again, the story has been the disgraceful and unprovoked police brutality. Which we saw more of just last night. Meanwhile, support for this movement grows and grows. More wisdom.

Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.

Any fatalities would prove catastrophic for either side. This is a war for the hearts and minds. If one protester is killed, it would be Kent State deja vu. Police commissioners and elected officials might have to resign; if the protesters turn violent, the corporate media will exploit the incident mercilessly, freeing up the state’s condign power to move in and dismantle the movement while the public nods in approval

OWS: non-violence is your cornerstone. Remove it, and you will lose. Beware of agent provocateurs.

Occupy Wall Street and the Occupations it has inspired across America are acts of great hope–faith that nonviolence and righteousness can save our country from the systemic criminality that has threatened all of our livelihoods.

In demonstrations of the recent past against the World Trade Organization meetings, most notably the Toronto, Seattle and Pittsburgh meetings, there were documented and videotaped instances of ‘Anarchists’ that were masked, gloved and identifiably NOT part of the protests instigating and portraying acts of violence against authorities.